Colonies can trade with other factions by using caravans to buy and sell slaves/prisoners, furniture, gear, pack dromedaries, resources and other valuable items.

The trade interface shows what commodities are available to trade, the colony's stock, the trader's stock, and the prices to buy and sell.

BUY

QUANTITY

SELL

ALL

ONE

positive = buynegative = sell

ONE

ALL

<<

<

may type # here

>

>>

Prices listed in green are cheap (does not appear with base-game traders), while prices listed in red are expensive.

Items that the foreign trader has no interest in are shown grayed out at the bottom of the list; other traders may want them instead.

Animals that have been downed (whether due to starvation or injury) are not listed for trade.

Early game

Caravans consist of one or more faction members with most bringing pack animals and tamed animals in tow. Players can either form their own caravan or wait for others to visit their own colony. To trade with a foreign passing caravan, direct a colonist (preferably with high social skill as s/he can get better prices) to speak with the caravan member who has a yellow question mark above the head. Stored items will be eligible to sell and appear in the trade window. Purchased items will be dropped in the location where the trader was standing and will need to be hauled.

Sometimes, foreign caravan member may fight each other and accidentally drop items they were carrying as part of their gear inventory.

As of Alpha 14 (July 15th, 2016), the interface also now lets you type in the number you want to trade instead of dragging to the number.

Later game

Satellite calls to request caravans to friendly factions at the costs of 600 silver, which can be reduced to 300 silver if goodwill is above 40. You can only call 1 caravan per 4 days per friendly faction.

Interaction with vessels flying within range which will stay around for a limited time (a blue notification will appear at the right of your screen to announce the trade ship and its type). After it's done, a simple notice at the top of the screen will prompt when the same vessel leaves comms range and can no longer be traded with. Each trade ship varies in type and which determines its inventory.

To trade, order a colonist to interact with the comms console. Only items located within range of an orbital trade beacon will be eligible for trade. Purchases will be sent via drop pods to a beacon's open-air tiles, drop pods will phase through constructed roofs otherwise. If all beacon tiles are covered, drop pods will land at the nearest eligible tile.

Prisoners can be sold directly from their cell even if not in range of a beacon and tamed animals can be sold from anywhere on the map. The trade value of a prisoner or animal is based on their capabilities, injuries and skills.

Types of Traders

Land convoy

Visitors are small groups that carry all of their goods on their person. They may or may not have items for trade; even if they do, they often have few items and little silver to trade with.

Trade caravans are large groups that carry their goods on pack muffalo or dromedaries, depending on climate. They have a moderate amount of items and silver to buy trade with.

Technological Level

Neolithic traders are tribal in nature and will be limited to selling neolithic level items.

Outlander traders come from other colonies on your rimworld and are not restricted to a specific technology level of items.

While the game does not specify where orbital traders hail from, the technologically advanced nature of items that they carry generally indicates that they are from midworlds, urbworlds or glitterworlds.

Space convoy

Orbital traders are traders which have no physical presence. They have large amounts of items and silver to trade with.

Pirate Merchant

Pirate Merchants deal in slaves/prisoners, weapons, body parts, medicine, and beer. The chance of a trade ship carrying prisoners should go down as colony population goes up.

Trading tips

Colonists with a higher social skill using the comms console will negotiate lower buying prices for everything but the commodities (0.5% per social skill point).

Likewise, colonists with a higher social skill will negotiate for higher selling prices for everything but the commodities (0.5% per social skill point).

Trade is influenced by your trader's ability to speak and hear. Damage to any such parts will ruin trade prices, and conversely bionic enhancements (no such enhancements exist as of vanilla Alpha 16) will improve trade.

Selling a prisoner is profitable, but has a negative impact on the happiness of all colonists (excludes psychopaths). To prevent exploiting a recruiting loophole, you cannot buy back a prisoner you just sold.

Food and textiles can be quickly grown on hydroponics basins, or in large amounts from large growing zones, which makes farming a viable income source, provided there's enough manpower to tend to the crops.

It is recommended to put your comms console in or near the bedroom of the colonist with the highest social skill for convenient trading.

All traders carry a limited amount of silver, so they may not be able to buy everything you wish to sell. You can still give them things but everything they receive will be for free, as they cannot afford to pay.

Sculptures can be created with a sculptor's table and sold to traders. Since trade ships carry a limited amount of silver, though, you may find that you cannot sell a very expensive sculpture without obtaining the full value in silver.

You can trade your expensive items (weapons, sculptures) for other desirable items if the trade ship doesn't have enough silver to complete the transaction. Of course, the amount of silver you can gain is lower, but it is usually better to have a lot of cheap items than an expensive one in your store (sometimes you have items so expensive that no trader can buy them, or when you try the sell bunch tip above).

Notes

Selecting Randy Random as your AI Storyteller may cause your colony to receive no other faction visits at all after the initial phase of the game.